"The Taste of Rice Blossoms" is a film directed by Peng Fei, a young director after the 80s, reflecting the problems of left-behind children in Dai villages in Yunnan, and won the "Special Mention Award" in the Venice Day Competition Unit of the 74th Venice International Film Festival, the "Winner Award" of the Russian Film Festival, and the "Most Popular Film Voted by the Audience" at the Pingyao International Film Festival.
In the award speech of the Pingyao International Film Festival, it was mentioned that the bright and gorgeous picture, behind the lens contains humanistic care, let us see the most precious things in this era.
What is the most precious thing of our time?
Director Peng Fei once explained the origin of the title of the film "The Taste of Rice Blossoms", which originated from a Kind of Dai Delicacy Rice, which is a must-have food for every household before and after the Songkran Festival, and the director ate the rice blossoms the night before naming his film and decided to name it.
In the film, director Pengfei uses a poetic lens language to present a single mother Ye Lan who returned to her hometown from a migrant worker, and her daughter Lan Hang, who stayed at home, from estrangement and indifference to the healing journey of spiritual communication, and at the same time reflected the confusion and death of the farming civilization represented by the Dai villages in Yunnan under the impact of modern industrial civilization, thus conveying a simple value: reverence for nature, guarding faith and tradition, is an excellent way to awaken people's inner warmth.
In the film, through the image of "the taste of rice blossoms", the director refers to three meanings: the pure and simple warmth between people, the beauty of the original tradition, and the ideal light brought by modern civilization.
This is also the most precious thing of this era.
<h1>First, the warm journey: companionship, always is the parents to give their children the longest confession, the warmest protection, the most sincere love
</h1>
For Ye Lan, a single mother who has returned to the Dai village in Yunnan Province for many years as a migrant worker in Shanghai, the most distant distance in the world is not the end of the world, but wants to relive the mother-daughter relationship with her daughter Who stayed at home, but the daughter hid in the bed to talk to her, telling her, "It is better to listen to the voice."
Ye Mu went to school to pick up Hang Hang and go home, and Hang Hang was quite reluctant and explained to the classmates behind him, "She came to pick me up and take me home."
The title here can refer to anyone's "she", rather than the exclusive title "mother" with emotional overtones, which shows the coldness and alienation between the daughter and the mother.
For many years, the distance between the mother and daughter of Ye Mu and Mu Hang, which is standing across, is no longer the distance of space, but the distance of the heart, alienation and strangeness, comparable to the Great Rift Valley of East Africa. How to bridge this huge bottomless rift between mother and daughter is a main line of the film.
Soon after Ye Lan returned home, she found that Wan Hang, who was dependent on her grandfather for her life, was contaminated with many left-behind children's vices, lying, addicted to mobile phone games and could not extricate herself, had a big fight with her classmates, contradicted the teacher, hid the motorcycle keys of the teacher who disciplined her, stole the temple incense money to go to the Internet café to play games, and so on, and did a lot of strange things.
At first, Ye Lan was angry and angry, and Yan Hang hid in the bed to play with her mobile phone, and she directly and rudely took the mobile phone away. It will also be reprimanded, but to no avail.
In the face of the rebellious and mischievous daughter, the helpless Ye Muan once wanted to return to the city. Halfway to the road, it's back again.
Lan Hang beat a boy into the hospital, Ye Ran ran to the hospital, but sat next to a patient with gauze wrapped around his head, and it turned out that she recognized the wrong person.
Even his own daughter would admit that she was wrong, and Ye Ran realized that her daughter was no longer the little girl she was when she was a child.
Ye Mu, who was already stained with the taste of the city, returned to his hometown, quite uncomfortable, ate a bowl of rice noodles made by his father, and was very confused, "I think about this every day outside, why does it taste different when I come back?" ”
"The taste is high," the father sighed in an elongated tone.
Her hometown has changed, her daughter has changed, why shouldn't she? How could she treat her daughter's rebellion according to the eyes of the past?
Psychologist Victor Frank famously said that in any extreme environment, people always have a final freedom, that is, the freedom to choose their own attitudes.
The essence of all the problems we face is a problem of the mind. We can't stop this change that happens all the time in the outside world, nor can we force others to make changes, but we are the masters of our own hearts, and choosing how to treat the world and see others is the key to solving relationship problems.
The healing of the feelings of the mother and daughter began with Ye Ran's own change of mentality. She began to reflect that her mother's little companionship with her daughter was the root cause of her daughter's various problems.
When it was discovered that her daughter had stolen the incense money from the temple and went to the Internet café to play all night, Ye Ran did not rush into the Internet café as most parents showed, severely reprimanded her daughter, and even beat her up.
Ye Lan slept in the car outside the Internet café all night, and waited until the next morning, when Lan Hang and her classmate Xiang Lu came out of the Internet café, and she didn't say anything. But before going back, Ye Mu went to the side of the stall to buy breakfast early, and only bought his own share, which was a punishment for Mu Hang's misconduct.
Ye Lan's reaction, in the eyes of her daughter Mu Hang, was unexpected, and she also began to be touched in her heart and felt guilty. The relationship between mother and daughter has also warmed up from the freezing point.
In the end, the estrangement between their hearts was completely opened by the death of Xianglu.
"Usually, they (parents) don't come back when they have minor illnesses, and this time they have a serious illness and they can't come back!" Also a left-behind child, the seriously ill Xianglu said before his death that the left-behind children did not have the sadness and desolation of their parents, such innocent and childish words, let people cry.
The situation of Mu Xianglu can be said to be another possible life of Mu Hang, the fate of not having his mother.commencing. At this point, Ye Lan's will to stay was more determined, and Yan Hang also felt his mother's love for him.
Ye Muan and Mu Hang came to the cave, and the mother and daughter danced reverently in front of the stone Buddha, which is the most ethereal and beautiful set of pictures in the film, and the innocent and simple warmth between mother and daughter is awakened and sublimated.
Bakhtin points out that "in order for meanings to enter our experience, they should take some kind of expression in time and space." In other words, in the form of symbols that we hear and see, without such a time and space, it is impossible to express the most abstract thoughts. Naturally, any entry into the realm of meaning can only be accomplished through the gates of space-time relations."
The formation of the cave takes thousands of years, this abstract space has been precipitated by years, giving people a sense of tranquility and solemnity, combined with the ethereal and light dance of mother and daughter, so that people naturally rise up in respect of all things in heaven and earth.
Director Pengfei has repaired a nearly broken mother-daughter relationship through poetic and documentary aesthetic techniques, which has profound enlightenment significance not only for the parents of left-behind children, but also for all parents who rarely accompany their children:
Companionship is always the longest confession of affection, the warmest protection, and the most sincere love given by parents to their children.
<h1>Second, the death of tradition: The agricultural civilization represented by the ancient villages of the Dai people in Yunnan has been affected by the torrent of modern industrial civilization, the authentic and simple faith has been destroyed, and people's hearts have been impregnated and lost themselves</h1>
A good movie, on the one hand, must use the lens language to show a vivid and interesting storyline, portray the characters with distinct personalities, and the unique scenes in which the characters are in it, which is the skeleton of the film; on the other hand, the cultural thinking behind the image and the sublimation of the theme are equally important, which is the soul of the film. "Taste of Rice" does both.
"The beauty of each is beautiful, the beauty of beauty, the beauty of the united, the world is the same", Mr. Fei Xiaotong described the beauty of the communion of national culture. The exotic stilt houses, crispy rice flowers, light dances, turquoise amano, verdant bamboo forests and other Dai village elements in the film give people visual enjoyment, such as the spring breeze.
Although it is a realistic theme such as left-behind children, the style is not heavy and obscure, and the whole movie gives people a very bright and playful feeling, vivid and interesting.
A commentary article in the People's Daily entitled "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" gave a very accurate evaluation, "Literary and artistic works with social themes can also be warm and bright."
In addition, the more clever place of "The Taste of Rice Blossoms" is that, borrowing a small story of the family affection of a mother and daughter, it reflects that the agricultural civilization of the ancient village of the Dai people in Yunnan has been affected by the torrent of modern industrial civilization, and has also destroyed the original and simple traditional belief, and the souls of the people living in it are inevitably impregnated and lost themselves.
In the film, Muan Hang and Mu Xianglu wear Indian costumes to dance "Tianzhu Maiden", which seems to be unremarkable. In order to cater to the market and pursue economic benefits, tourism developers have local Dai villagers dance in Indian costumes and other ethnic minority costumes, which is ironic.
In the villages that have been impacted by modernization, the original simple hearts of the villagers have been impregnated, people's beliefs have collapsed, people's hearts are indifferent, and they are only interested in profit.
After The death of Mu Xianglu, Mu xianglu's parents did not show much sadness, but they were worried about the fundraising donations that were not useful to the fundraisers and did not come in handy for Muran Xianglu's treatment.
The temple and buddhist hall that appears many times in the movie are no longer a space for villagers to express their spiritual beliefs, but they have become a place to provide WIFI networks for children to play online games, and the incense money is stolen by children to play all night in Internet cafes.
In a way of irony and humor, director Pengfei conveys the tearing and pain in the process of the transformation of the agricultural civilization to a modern industrial civilization represented by the Dai villages, which shocks people's hearts and attracts people's deep thinking.
<h1>Third, the light of ideals: a new civilization has arrived, knowledge and education is the best way to change the fate of left-behind children, to meet the dawn brought by industrial civilization, while adhering to the simple tradition, in order to find the road to the human heart, that is, the road to happiness</h1>
How to solve the contradiction between tradition and modernity, development and adherence? This is not just a Dai village in Yunnan, but a common dilemma faced by the whole of China and even all mankind.
Art cannot provide the ultimate solution to the problem, but in The Taste of Rice Blossoms, director Peng Fei expressed his unique thinking.
Resisting and rejecting modernization is impossible and useless, whether we like it or not, the tentacles of modernization have reached all corners of the earth, and the wheel of history will never stand still.
No one can deny that modernization has brought us the convenience of life and the abundance of materials.
In the film, the "airport" that people say by word of mouth is an important image representing modernization. When Xianglu was seriously ill, he heard the adult talking, "The big hospitals are very far away, and if you want to take a plane, I don't know if this baby can survive to the airport." ”
Just imagine, if the airport has been built, the long-ill Xianglu still needs to be seriously ill through the "soul calling" of the godmother?
After the death of Xianglu, the ignorant villagers, fearing that disaster would strike again, went to worship the mountain god under the instructions of the goddess. As a result, the iron gate at the mountain gate hung a sign that read, "Rest today." Just then, a plane flew through the blue sky.
The director uses this to convey a positive hint to those who are afraid of modernization, that the godmother cannot save human lives, that a new civilization has arrived, and that it has brought a ray of hope.
But it is not an easy task to change the thinking of uncivilized villagers. The director put this task on the new generation represented by Mu Hang.
In order to let the class teacher, Mr. Lin, help her change her seat to the last row, Hehang took a box of chocolates to bribe him, and also knew the truth of "eating people's mouths short and taking people's hands short", and waited until the teacher ate a piece of chocolate before asking for it.
Teacher Lin wrestled with this naughty little girl, using geometric methods to put together a small piece of chocolate missing into a complete rectangle, telling her, "Learning mathematics is still useful"!
Teacher Lin is the embodiment of knowledge and education, and the dawn of hope brought by modern civilization to the Dai villages.
And these left-behind children are the ones who make the village go to the light. A new civilization has arrived, and knowledge and education are the best way to change the fate of left-behind children.
Director Peng Fei makes good use of contrast techniques, and the "Tianzhu Maiden" of Mu Hang and Mu Xianglu at the beginning of the film echoes with the end of Ye Mu and Mu Hang's mother and daughter dancing together in the cave, and forms a sharp contrast. In this way, he expresses his philosophical thoughts on heaven and earth, living beings, life and beliefs that are quite classical in China:
Balance is the only way to resolve the contradiction between tradition and modernization. Only by greeting the dawn brought by industrial civilization and adhering to simple traditions and beliefs can we find the way to the human heart, that is, the road to happiness.
Psychology has a view that relationships are everything.
Director Pengfei said that the dance of mother and daughter in the cave has two meanings: one is to represent the mother's companionship with her daughter; on the other hand, for everyone, the most sincere emotions between people, people and society, and between people and nature are the most precious things in this era.
No matter how the times develop, we must stick to our hearts, use love and companionship to awaken the most authentic warmth in the hearts of people, guard traditions, and have respect for all things in heaven and earth, so as not to lose ourselves in the torrent of the times. Only in this way can we find a way to happiness in the gap between tradition and modernity.